The Power of Youth
by Pablo74
Summary: What if Naruto gets some advice on how to be a ninja by Team Gai six months before the graduation test? Will he be able to make a bunshin? Will he find out the truth of Kyubbi? Will he be the dead last?
1. Chapter 1: Sparking the Flames of Youth

Naruto was tired. He had a reason to be the sun had not even risen, yet he was awake. The reason for him being awake once again disturbed him. "Yosh, Gai-sensei I have completed my 50th lap only 450 more to go."

 _This must be a dream. No way is there a man and his clone doing laps around his house at 4:30 in the morning._

"51", Naruto heard and he was in complete disbelief, this was no dream, it was a nightmare. After five more laps Naruto was able to gather his resolve to go yell at whoever these insane people were.

"Who are you and why are you awake right now?" Naruto exclaimed. "We are fanning our flames of youth" replied the older man, "Would you like to join in?"

 _I'm going insane. There's no way that's his excuse._

Yosh, do you want to be a ninja?" the younger one asked. "Of course I do, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of Konoha!" Naruto responded.

"Well then young one, you should join in" likely the one called 'Gai' said. "Lee here is one of my genin students is working to improve his stamina, which is one the most important parts of being a ninja"

"Aren't jutsu more important?" Naruto asked inquisitively. "They are important, but every ninja needs to be able to be able to fight for long periods of time. Usually a battle takes longer than a minute and it is important to be as fresh as possible in a long battle." Gai responded.

"Also, Lee is not just training stamina by running he has weights which improves his leg strength" Gai explained. "Yosh, since training under Gai-sensei I have gotten so much stronger, I was the dead-last and now I can compete with the rookie of the year" Lee exclaimed.

"Really?", Naruto questioned. "If you're so strong how about we have a spar and you prove it . I'm in the academy and I bet I could destroy you" _There is no way I lose to this kid with a bowl cut and green spandex._

Gai-sensei, is it okay if I spar with Naruto-kun?" Lee asked. "Of course, this would be a quite youthful activity to see how much you have improved"

"Meet me at the training ground in an hour, and be ready to lose!"


	2. Chapter 2: Learning the Power of Youth

When Naruto arrived at the training ground he saw Lee already there warming up by doing katas. "Lee are you ready to lose?" Naruto taunted.

"Yosh, I believe that my hard work over the past couple of months will allow my flames of youth to burn brighter today, Naruto-kun!" He answered.

"For this spar the rules are that there is no jutsu allowed, and the winner will be declared when the opponent is knocked out or they surrender" Gai said. "Ready ... Begin!"

Immediately, Naruto saw a blur coming at his face which he put his forearm to block as quick as he could. He barely had anytime to think after before Lee's foot nailed him in the back of the head sending Naruto the ground.

 _Maybe this fight will be a little tougher than I thought, but a future hokage can beat any genin no matter how good._ The next minute would prove how wrong Naruto was. There was a constant barrage of fists and feet that would definitely leave bruises.

Naruto once again got up from being beaten down. "Konoha senpū", was the last thing Naruto would hear before his world went black.

"Lee, I think you went a bit overboard", a female voice said. "I know, I got caught in stoking my flames of youth"

"I demand a rematch!" Naruto yelled after he remembered what had gotten him in this position in this position. "That was a fluke, a future hokage would never lose so easily"

Naruto then realized that there were two new faces there. "Who are you two?" He asked loudly. The girl with the twin buns responded "I'm Tenten, and our other team mate is Neji"

"So you guys are all ninja?" Naruto asked. "Yup, we are all part of Team 9 under sensei Maito Gai. We have been genin for six months now. Also I'm pretty sure that the beatdown Lee gave you was no fluke, we're experienced genin and you aren't even out of the academy yet" Tenten responded.

"Well Tenten what are you so good at that makes you think that you're a better ninja then me?" Naruto asked trying to get under her skin. "I'm a weapons specialist. Pick a spot within 50 yards of here." Tenten answered.

"Okay, how about that knot in the tree over there" Naruto replied. Almost immediately Tenten had launched five kunai which all imbedded themselves in the knot. "Too easy"

"How did you get so good at that?" Naruto demanded. "Practice, lots of practice" Tenten answered truthfully. "Okay, I'll practice as hard as I can to try to be as good at that as you are with weapons" Naruto promised.

"Naruto I can help you know what to practice if I know your skill set, can you tell me what your current skills are" Tenten suggested. "Sure I know how to use henge and how to use kawarimi, but I don't know to do the bunshin it's just impossible"

"Well the most important right now for you is to learn how to use the bunshin, the most important thing is to have good chakra control, and you can do it" Tenten explained. "Probably for you I would use the leaf sticking excercise and then if you master that try doing the bunshin again, it should work"

"Thank you so much Tenten, but why are you helping me so much?" Naruto asked. "Well, you are someone who may one day go on a mission with me or for the village and I want you to be as strong as possible for both reasons"

"Anyways, where can I see you again?" Naruto questioned. "We are always at this training at 7:00 in the morning if you need more advice or just want to train with us come by" Gai answered.

"Ok, bye!"


	3. Chapter 3: The Promise of Youth

"Okay time to get to practicing so I can do the stupid bunshin", Naruto said. _For a future hokage I can do more than one leaf, I bet I can do five at once._

Unsurprisingly he could not. For the next hour Naruto struggled even getting one leaf to stick to his forehead. "Leaves are the worst thing ever, you hear me leaves when I'm Hokage there is no way I will keep our name Village Hidden in the Leaf. Maybe I'll do Village Hidden in the Trees, or even Village Hidden in the Forest just not you stupid leaves"

Despite his frustrations Naruto carried on. He had made a promise and he would not break it no matter how annoyed he was at leaves.

After a quick lunch break at Ichiraku's he was back at it. Finally he got a leaf to stick, "Yes, this is the best moment of my life!", but then to Naruto's horror the leaf fell off his forehead after only sticking there for five seconds. "No, no, no please I've been practicing for five hours, and I only can do it for five seconds!"

After getting over his disappointment Naruto tried to focus on the same feeling he had when he stuck the leaf the first time. _Maybe if I keep concentrating on it a_ _nd just keep focus I can do this._ After another few failed attempts he got it. _Focus, focus, focus, the leaf is the only thing in your life, your only goal is to keep it on just keep focusing._

Naruto was able to hold the leaf in the same spot on his forehead for what like an hour, but truly only lasted a minute. Still, Naruto was elated, so elated and confident that he immediately tried to do a bunshin. The result of that brought him back to earth.

Practicing for the rest of the day he was able to raise his record to an impressive ten minutes, especially considering he could not even do the excercise at the beginning of the day.

After some cup ramen for dinner, Naruto went to sleep with a smile on his face. Tommorow at the academy he could show up Sasuke-teme by doing something that he probably even learned yet.

 _I bet the whole class will be impressed if I walk in with a leaf stuck on my forehead. That could be also how I could practice instead of listening to boring lectures._

Once Naruto arrived at the academy and commenced his plan, he realized that sitting still and holding the leaf was far easier than doing it while walking. _It's whatever as long as I can make it to my seat before it falls off everything will be fine._

"Woah, Naruto nice trick you got there.", Chouji complimented. "Yeah I learned it yesterday, it's to improve chakra control", Naruto said trying not to brag. "Hey teme can you do this", pointing at the leaf on his forehead. "Yes, I learned it when I was seven, dobe" That statement definitely rained on Naruto's happiness of learning a new skill.

 _I'll just keep practicing and eventually I'll get better than him._ The rest of the day was rather boring the main gain was that he was able to hold the leaf for almost an hour now and he could spin it on his forehead.

When Naruto got home he attempted doing two leaves at once, he was able to succeed for around a minute. The goal now for Naruto was to be able to hold five leaves on himself for an hour and he would consider leaf concentration mastered.

Naruto toiled on and practiced all day everyday, for almost a week he had pulled no pranks because of his desire to complete his goal. By the end of the week he had gotten able to hold four leaves for fifteen minutes. His determination to master leaf sticking was admirable, but it also got him into a sticky situation at Ichiraku's.

 _Flashback_

"So Naruto why do you have four leaves on your forehead" Ayame asked. Slurping down his noodles he responded, "I'm training my chakra control". "What for" Ayame asked again. "So I can do the stupid bunshin and then master it so I can be as good as Tenten-chan is at throwing stuff" Naruto answered.

"Tenten-chan? Does little Naruto-kun have a girlfriend?"

"No it's not like that at all I like Sakura-chan not her, she just helped me learn how to train to be a good ninja" Naruto said blushing. "Well do you think she's cute?" Ayame teased. "No. I mean she looks good, but I don't like her like that" Naruto said defensively blushing even harder.

During this Naruto had lost complete concentration and one of the leaves had floated into the bowl of the most muscular man Naruto had ever seen. "Hey kid, keep your stupid leaves on your face and out my soup, got it"

"Ok, sir, sorry sir, this will never happen again, please don't hurt me" Naruto stammered. "Hey kid as long as it doesn't happen again you got nothing to worry about, if it does then well, we will cross bridge when we get there" He threatened.

Naruto had probably never run home faster.

 _End Flashback_

Naruto was excited, he was able to meet with Team 9 today because it was the weekend. He wanted to show Tenten and the rest of the team how much he had improved.

Once he got there he showed off to the whole team how he could hold four leaves at once. "Yosh, Naruto you have truly been stoking your flames of youth!", Lee exclaimed. "Naruto I think if you are that good at the leaf concentration excercise you can probably form a bunshin", Tenten said joyfully.

Naruto frowned, "No for some reason I still can't do it. It looks a bit better, but it's clear to anyone that it's not real", He said sadly.

"Hm, that's strange to be able to do that means you must have much better chakra control which should allow you to do a bunshin. I'll ask Gai-sensei to see what the issue is.", Tenten said.

"Naruto-kun, can you show me your new youthful skill!", Gai said a bit loudly. After viewing it Gai said, "With that amount of youthful control the bunshin should be no issue. Maybe more youthful training will allow you to complete your goal. After mastering that excercise try climbing a tree by sticking to it with your feet, and come back to me if you can't do the bunshin after you master that skill"

"Thanks Gai-sensei", Naruto said.

"Naruto, I have a question, are you color blind?", Tenten asked. "No, why?" answered Naruto. "Well then why would you as a ninja ever wear something that flashy?", Tenten asked. "Um, I like orange, and I think it's a great color for a ninja because I can look in style while kicking ass" Naruto defended. The glint in Tenten's eyes scared Naruto, "Problem Number One with that orange monstrosity you call clothing: ninjas need to sneak around, bright orange is easily spotted. Problem Number Two there is no style at all with that thing. The only benefits it may have are that maybe your opponents will be blinded or they will feel bad about beating someone who is so dumb they wore that outfit as a ninja.

Naruto pouted, "This is one the only things I could buy and of course I bought it because it was orange, by far the best color" Tenten sighed, "Listen, Naruto I don't know why that was one of the only things you can buy, but we have to fix it as soon as possible. After training come with to my family store we can sell you something far superior. Maybe we can even give you a bit of orange."

"Okay, well I'm going to go train, remember after training you come with me, and I never have to see that thing after today", Tenten said. "Okay, see you after training Tenten" Naruto said a little hurt by Tenten attacking his clothes.


End file.
